- Sudan: Drone strikes on civilian vehicles kill at least 20, rights groups say
Source: ABC News
“Drone strikes on civilian vehicles headed to social gatherings in Sudan have killed over 20 people in recent day, according to rights groups, as the use of unmanned aircraft becomes increasingly common in the north eastern African country’s war. A drone hit the outskirts of Khartoum killing 10 civilians, including five women from the same family, as they drove to a wedding, the Sudan Doctors Network said Wednesday. The medical aid group, which has been tracking violence between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces throughout the war — which is in its fourth year — blamed Tuesday’s attack on a road west of Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum, on the RSF. All of those on the vehicle, which caught fire, were killed.” (07/08/26)
- Bezos’s Blue Origin valued at $130 billion in first public fundraising round
Source: CNBC
“Jeff Bezos’[s] Blue Origin is raising about $10 billion, in its first outside funding round that will value the rocket company at $130 billion, sources told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. Bezos is set to contribute $2 billion into the round, along with about $4 billion from hedge fund Coatue Management, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details are private. The remaining $4 billion has seen significant demand, with several major investors expected to participate, the people said. … Bezos has in the past funded Blue Origin solely through sales of his Amazon stock. In 2024, Bezos said he believed Blue Origin will one day be a bigger company than Amazon.” (07/08/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/08/blue-origin-bezos-fundraising.html
- PM says Denmark’s regime will defend Greenland as Trump threatens to revive NATO crisis
Source: Washington Post
“Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared at a NATO summit on Wednesday that her country would defend its territory as President Donald Trump revived his longtime demand for control of Greenland. Earlier this year, Trump sharply raised tensions with allies and seemed to push NATO to a breaking point with his threats to seize Greenland …. Allies stood up to the president and Trump backed down, saying at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he had reached the framework of a deal brokered by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. But almost as soon as he arrived to meet NATO counterparts in Turkey, Trump restarted the fight, telling reporters that Greenland ‘should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.’ … Asked if Denmark would defend its territory from friend or foe alike, Frederiksen said, ‘Of course we will defend the kingdom of Denmark.'” (07/08/26)
- Sources: Hegseth Cancels Meeting With Netanyahu Over Possible Sale of F-35s to Turkey
Source: US News & World Report
“U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth canceled a meeting that had been scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli source told Reuters. Any such sale would likely anger Israeli officials. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Hegseth had also been scheduled to meet Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on a trip to Israel and that Iran would feature in their discussions. … In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he opposed the sale of F-35s to Turkey, and that he had made his opposition clear to Trump.” (07/08/26)
- Singapore: Changes underway in smaller opposition parties as leaders quit
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“A year since the dust settled on the Singapore general election, leadership resignations in two small opposition parties signal a period of post-poll recalibration after disappointing results. The once-promising Progress Singapore Party (PSP), led by ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) defector Tan Cheng Bock, was dealt an ‘existential blow’ on Monday, analysts say, following the resignations of two central executive committee members. … Also on Monday, People’s Power Party (PPP) announced its secretary general, Goh Meng Seng, had been replaced by William Lim Lian Chin. Goh had said he would step down after his team’s dismal showing in the four-way contest in the Tampines constituency.” (07/08/26)
- Senile reality TV star babbles about halting US trade with Spain
Source: Politico
“U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was cutting off trade with Spain over defense spending — reviving a long-running feud between Washington and Madrid. ‘I didn’t speak to Spain. Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,’ he told reporters ahead of a meeting with fellow NATO leaders in Ankara. ‘By the way, I’d like you to cut it off,’ he added, appearing to address U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. … However, it’s unclear how Trump’s idea would work as Spain is a member of the EU, which is in charge of trade policy for all of its member countries.” (07/08/26)
- NYC: Highrise deemed stable after officials earlier warned it could collapse
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“An under-construction Manhattan highrise at risk of collapse was stabilized late Tuesday and some evacuations of nearby buildings were lifted. ‘We’ve been monitoring the building for many hours and have not seen any movement,’ Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, said during a news conference Tuesday. By nighttime, residents were allowed back into several of the seven buildings that were evacuated as a precaution. The scene unfolded throughout the day after the precarious conditions were spotted in the morning at the 1970s-era building, which is being converted into luxury apartments. Construction workers at the site and people in nearby buildings — including a school, diplomatic offices and several hotels — in the busy corridor of midtown were rushed out after firefighters were called there around 8 a.m. ET.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/new-york-city-high-rise-danger-9.7261602
- Iraq’s holy cities host funeral processions for slain Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“Thousands thronged the streets of Najaf on Wednesday as the coffin of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, moved through the holy city in a procession devoted to Iraq, home to Shia Islam’s most sacred shrines. … After a massive procession in Iran’s holy city of Qom, Iraqi officials and senior politicians received Khamenei’s remains on Tuesday night at Najaf International Airport, in the presence of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and one of the late leader’s sons. … Khamenei’s final burial will take place on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad in northeast Iran.” (07/08/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/iraqs-holy-cities-host-funeral-processions-irans-khamenei
- The Resilience Paradox: How Military Strikes Are Bolstering Iran’s Cohesion
Source: Antiwar.com
by Peter Rodgers“Wars are seldom judged fairly in the immediate aftermath. Generals and analysts often focus on tallies of destroyed sites, intercepted projectiles, and tactical wins. Yet the deeper political fallout usually surfaces later – and it has a habit of defying the expectations of those who started the fight. History offers plenty of examples where short-term military victories sowed the seeds of longer-term strategic setbacks. This reality merits close attention when evaluating the recent U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran. The central issue may not be simply how much Iranian military hardware was damaged. More important is whether the conflict has reshaped Iran’s internal politics in ways that run counter to what Washington and its partners hoped. If the goal of prolonged sanctions, isolation, and military action was to erode the Islamic Republic’s governing strength, the picture that’s emerging looks more nuanced than many anticipated.” (07/08/26)
- Why Americans Choose Domestic Travel in 2026
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey“Economic pressures and strict travel rules force Americans to cut back on international trips to places like the Bahamas and Jamaica. People choose to spend their money at home. They take vacations within the United States. We see this shift happening right now. The data show Americans changing their travel habits. Travelers from other countries do the same when visiting the United States.” (07/08/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/why-americans-choose-domestic-travel
- New Data Show Rising Demand for Innovative Schooling Models
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry McDonald“Demand for new schooling models continues to climb, and entrepreneurial educators plan to grow to meet that demand. That is the key takeaway from a recent survey of school founders conducted by our team here at FEE’s Education Entrepreneurship Lab. This spring, we asked the 200+ applicants to last year’s FEE Enterprising Founding Award to complete a survey about the status of their innovative schools and learning spaces, including private schools, microschools, hybrid schools, homeschooling collaboratives, and online learning platforms. More than 70 school founders responded, offering eye-opening insights about the current landscape of emerging schooling models and its future direction.” (07/08/26)
https://fee.org/articles/new-data-show-rising-demand-for-innovative-schooling-models/
- How to Make the CDC Great Again
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Marine“Afew months ago, I was one of several candidates under consideration for Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While I did not make the final cut, I was honored to be considered for such an important position. The administration has nominated a highly qualified team to lead the CDC and I wish them well. The experience gave me the opportunity to reflect on what reforms I would like to see at the CDC as it faces a pivot point in the history of medicine and public health. Here are six themes that I see as most important and urgent.” (07/08/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/how-to-make-the-cdc-great-again/
- The Seeing Stones of Modern Warfare
Source: Law & Liberty
by Henry T Edmondson III“Would J. R. R. Tolkien be pleased to see new military technology named in honor of Middle-earth?” (07/08/26)
- Perhaps the Nazi Tattoo Was a Clue
Source: The Atlantic
by Mike Nelson“Why was this horrific allegation the threshold when [Graham] Platner had so obviously transgressed so many times before? Perhaps Platner’s Nazi tattoo should have been a sufficient indicator that he lacked the character to be a senator. Perhaps maintaining that SS logo for two decades, covering it up only when it became politically inconvenient, demonstrated that he lacked the judgment for national office. Perhaps a multiyear history of not just having abhorrent views about women and minorities, but feeling the need to post them for the world to see, could have told us that he is not the person to be Maine’s voice in Washington. Maybe a well-documented history of contemptible behavior in his personal life should have been enough, when taken with everything else, for Democrats to conclude that Platner was exactly the person he appeared to be.” (07/08/26)
- The Indestructible Aspiration Toward Freedom
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein“Can the transformation of America into a ‘State without freedom’ be stopped? Is it possible to learn of the dangers to freedom and human progress without first living through our own bitter experiences? I know it is fashionable to believe that the new wave of communist/Islamist candidates is hardly a threat to become mainstream outside of blue urban centers in the United States. History says we are one economic crisis away from that view being proven wrong.” (07/08/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/the-indestructible-aspiration-toward
- Tom Blanton, Awesome Antiwar Artist, RIP
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard“One of America’s most talented antiwar artists and political satirists passed away last week. Tom Blanton did one of the best daily roundups of government oppression and outrages stories on the Internet. His Project for a New American Revolution was an inspiration for me and thousands of other folks over the years. Tom was also one of the best and funniest headline writers I knew. He was principled, courageous, and talented as the day is long. He was 68 years old and a lifetime resident of Richmond, Virginia. His Flickr page showcases his political art and other smackdowns of contemporary culture from the last 15 years. His artwork is shareable under a C.C. 4.0 license.” (07/08/26)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2026/07/08/tom-blanton-awesome-antiwar-artist-rip/
- Inside the growing religious revolt against Christian Zionism
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Connor Echols“Faith groups battled over Israel Tuesday during a marathon day of lobbying on Capitol Hill.” (07/08/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/christians-united-for-israel-lobbying/
- “Guns Versus Butter”: Tracing the Dark Origins of a Classic Economic Model
Source: The Daily Economy
by Daniel J Smith“The phrase’s apparent origins in Nazi Germany—and its grim use during the 1930s and 1940s—highlight a basic truth: prioritizing guns over butter ultimately imposes the cost of lower living standards on ordinary citizens.” (07/08/26)
- Far-Left Dem Says 9/11 Was Blowback. So Did Pat Buchanan
Source: The American Conservative
by Jack Hunter“Last week, far-left Democrat Melat Kiros won her Denver, Colorado, U.S. House primary against 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette, making the 29-year-old the latest in a slew of democratic socialists to have defeated establishment Democrats in this midterm election cycle. … Kiros in particular has come under fire, particularly from some conservatives, for depicting Islamic terrorism as blowback from American and Israeli policies. … The neocons used to insinuate the same about Pat Buchanan, a cofounder of this magazine, because he too explained terrorist attacks by reference to U.S. and Israeli policies.” (07/08/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/far-left-dem-says-9-11-was-blowback-so-did-pat-buchanan/
- Is This Country Having Its Socialist Moment?
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe“Despite the surface-level rhetoric used by all sides, the growing popularity of ‘socialism’ or ‘populism’ is primarily a non-ideological phenomenon. That becomes obvious if we look back in time. Because there was a period in the early twentieth century when the intellectual battle between advocates of socialism and capitalism was as rigorous and intellectual as many like to pretend it still is.” (07/08/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/country-having-its-socialist-moment
- A Nonpartisan Cure for a Partisan Supreme Court
Source: Checks & Balances
by Gary J Simson“Rather than trying to neutralize the partisan results of a politicized appointment process, the Democrats would have done well to focus on depoliticizing the process that produced those partisan results. Court expansion threatens to make the process even more political, and although term limits – the other possible Supreme Court reform featured in a report commissioned by President Biden early in his term – is unlikely to make the process any more political, there’s no reason to expect it to make the process any less. A third possibility, however, holds a great deal of potential in this regard: Change the proportion of senators needed to confirm a Supreme Court nominee from a simple majority to two-thirds.” (07/07/26)
https://chkbal.substack.com/p/a-nonpartisan-cure-for-a-partisan
- Automated Moderation Is Here to Stay
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Jillian C York & Corynne McSherry“Six years ago—one month into a global pandemic—we argued that the automated moderation processes many platforms were rapidly adopting should be highly transparent, easily appealable, and temporary. We warned that ‘protocols adopted in times of crisis often persist when the crisis is over.’ That warning proved prescient. The use of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify, flag, and moderate content has become the new norm—a permanent feature of how platforms govern speech online. In this two part series, we’re take stock of this new norm, and considering what platforms can and should do to ensure that AI serves online expression rather than stifling it.” (07/07/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/part-1-automated-moderation-here-stay
- Gigless in Seattle
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“A few years ago, Seattle imposed what amounted to a $26 an hour minimum wage for persons who deliver food for app-based services like DoorDash. Unfortunately for drivers, they don’t get paid this wage while waiting for the next order they can deliver. Thanks to the new costs, customers say things like ‘I ordered a $12 sandwich. $12 grew to $32! I just deleted the app.’ Drivers say things like ‘Work has become slow because of the new law.’ DoorDash reports 1.7 million fewer orders in Seattle in 2024. The new law took effect in January of that year.” (07/07/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/07/gigless-in-seattle/
- How Section 702’s Lapse Is an Opportunity for Congress
Source: Independent Institute
by Ella Reed“Congress recently allowed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to lapse, now giving them until March 2027 before surveillance authority ends to extend, reform, or completely eliminate the program. If 702 is to be continued, Congress needs to use this eight-month window to revise 702 to meet constitutional standards that protect Americans’ privacy, a standard that each reform attempt thus far has consistently fallen short of.” (07/07/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/07/section-702s-lapse-opportunity/
- Sixteen Fun Facts About Me
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan“I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t extraordinarily arrogant by disposition. Even when I was five years old, I felt like my mom was making glaring mistakes and should take orders from me. And I bluntly told her so! When I started collecting minor accomplishments, my inner sense of self-satisfaction grew stronger and stronger. Now it’s sky high.” (07/07/26)
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 07/08/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Pick-and-Choose Isolationism | Interview: Aaron MacLean.” (07/08/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/pick-and-choose-isolationism-interview-aaron-maclean/
- The Fifth Column, episode 565
Source: The Fifth Column
“Are We the Baddies? The Graham Platner Reckoning (w/ Kat Rosenfield).” (07/07/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/are-we-the-baddies-the-graham-platner
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 07/07/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“As the American Empire Collapses, Can We Salvage a Republic?” (07/07/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/07/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Ukraine: The Dark Specter Haunting The NATO Summit.” (07/07/26)